All venues, sorted by kind
Eight kinds of room,
one hundred and thirteen reasons.
Not the most addresses, but the right ones. Every venue in this guide has a signature work, a best hour and a reason to cross a city for it.
Museums
Collections and permanent exhibitions
41 venuesGalleries
Contemporary art, kunsthalles and project spaces
10 venuesOpera and Ballet
Opera houses and ballet stages
11 venuesConcert Halls
Classical, philharmonic and recital rooms
12 venuesTheatres
Drama, musicals and the fringe
9 venuesLive Rooms and Clubs
Jazz cellars, live houses and dance floors
15 venuesArenas and Big Shows
Stadiums, arenas and amphitheatres
2 venuesCulture Landmarks
Buildings, campuses and sites that are the exhibition
13 venuesAll venues
113 rooms in 16 cities
Filter by city and kind. Everything here is in the guide because we think it is worth a detour.
MuseumIconBerlin · Mitte
Museumsinsel
Five museums on one sandbank in the Spree, built to hold an empire's idea of itself
Opera houseStanding roomBerlin · Mitte
Staatsoper Unter den Linden
Frederick the Great's opera house, rebuilt three times and still the best acoustics in the city
Concert hallIconBerlin · Tiergarten
Berliner Philharmonie
The hall that invented vineyard seating and changed concert architecture worldwide
Live roomLateBerlin · Friedrichshain
Berghain
A power station turned into the most serious dance floor in the world, and the hardest door
MuseumBerlin · Moabit
Hamburger Bahnhof
A nineteenth-century railway terminus holding the contemporary collection of the nation
TheatreBerlin · Charlottenburg
Schaubühne
A Bauhaus-era cinema on the Kurfürstendamm, running German theatre's most exported repertoire
ArenaOutdoorBerlin · Westend
Waldbühne
Twenty-two thousand seats cut into a forest hollow, with the Philharmonic closing every season here
MuseumFreeLondon · Bloomsbury
The British Museum
Eight million objects, two and a half centuries of argument and no admission charge
MuseumFreeLondon · Bankside
Tate Modern
A power station on the Thames holding the national collection of modern art, free to enter
Opera houseBook aheadLondon · Covent Garden
Royal Opera House
The third theatre on this site, home to two of the world's leading companies
TheatreLondon · South Bank
National Theatre
Denys Lasdun's concrete terraces on the river, three stages and a free foyer that never closes
Concert hallStanding roomLondon · South Kensington
Royal Albert Hall
A Victorian rotunda for five thousand, and eight weeks each summer of the world's largest classical festival
Live roomLateLondon · Soho
Ronnie Scott's
A basement in Soho that has booked jazz every night since 1959
GalleryFreeLondon · East End
Whitechapel Gallery
The gallery that showed Guernica to Britain in 1939 and still opens the door for nothing
MuseumBook aheadAmsterdam · Museumplein
Rijksmuseum
The Dutch Golden Age in a cathedral of a building, with a cycle path running through the middle
MuseumBook aheadAmsterdam · Museumplein
Van Gogh Museum
Two hundred paintings and five hundred drawings, kept together by the family and given to the state
Concert hallFree concertsAmsterdam · Museumplein
Royal Concertgebouw
A shoebox hall from 1888 that most conductors put in their top three in the world
MuseumAmsterdam · Museumplein
Stedelijk Museum
Everything after 1870, in a nineteenth-century building with a white bathtub attached
Live roomLateAmsterdam · Leidseplein
Paradiso
A nineteenth-century church where the stained glass looks down on the stage
LandmarkFree ferryAmsterdam · Noord
Eye Filmmuseum
A white origami building across the water, holding the national film archive
Concert hallAmsterdam · Oosterdok
Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ
A glass box on the water built for the music that other halls will not programme
MuseumIconCopenhagen · Humlebæk
Louisiana Museum of Modern Art
A low modernist museum threaded through a sculpture park above the sound to Sweden
Opera houseCopenhagen · Holmen
Operaen
An opera house given to the nation by a shipping fortune, facing the royal palace across the water
MuseumFree daysCopenhagen · Indre By
Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek
A brewer's collection of antiquity and French sculpture around a palm-filled winter garden
TheatreCopenhagen · Kvæsthusbroen
Skuespilhuset
The royal playhouse on a boardwalk over the harbour, with a foyer that is a public promenade
GalleryFreeCopenhagen · Vesterbro
Kødbyen galleries
The white meatpacking halls, now a dense block of galleries, bars and studios
Live roomLateCopenhagen · Vesterbro
VEGA
A 1950s trade union house by Vilhelm Lauritzen, preserved down to the door handles, now a music venue
MuseumCopenhagen · Ishøj
ARKEN Museum of Modern Art
A deconstructivist ship run aground on a beach twenty minutes south of the city
MuseumFreeEdinburgh · New Town
Scottish National Gallery
A neoclassical temple on the mound between the old and new towns, free since 1859
TheatreEdinburgh · Leith Walk
Edinburgh Playhouse
The largest working theatre in Britain by seat count, and the fringe's biggest room
LandmarkFree galleriesEdinburgh · Southside
Summerhall
A former veterinary school with thirty rooms, running the sharpest end of the fringe
Concert hallEdinburgh · Lothian Road
Usher Hall
A domed Edwardian concert hall paid for by a whisky distiller, with the best acoustics in Scotland
TheatreEdinburgh · Lothian Road
Traverse Theatre
Scotland's new writing theatre, two small rooms and a basement bar that runs the festival gossip
Live roomLateEdinburgh · Cowgate
Sneaky Pete's
A hundred capacity room in the Cowgate that books above its size every single night
GalleryFreeEdinburgh · Dean Village
National Galleries Modern One and Two
Two neoclassical schools facing each other across a park, with a landform earthwork in front
MuseumBook aheadParis · 1st arrondissement
Musée du Louvre
A royal palace turned into the first public museum of the republic, and the most visited on earth
MuseumParis · 7th arrondissement
Musée d'Orsay
A Beaux-Arts railway station holding the world's best collection of impressionism
MuseumParis · Tuileries
Musée de l'Orangerie
Two oval rooms built to Monet's specification to hold the Water Lilies
Opera houseIconParis · 9th arrondissement
Palais Garnier
The most theatrical opera house ever built, where the staircase is the performance
Concert hallParis · La Villette
Philharmonie de Paris
Jean Nouvel's aluminium hill on the edge of the périphérique, with a hall that floats inside it
GalleryParis · Bois de Boulogne
Fondation Louis Vuitton
Twelve glass sails by Frank Gehry in a park, holding one of the most ambitious private programmes in Europe
Live roomLateParis · Châtelet
Duc des Lombards
A jazz club on a street with three of them, running two sets a night since 1984
MuseumIconVienna · Ringstrasse
Kunsthistorisches Museum
The Habsburg collection in a purpose-built palace, with the largest group of Bruegels in the world
Opera houseStanding roomVienna · Ringstrasse
Wiener Staatsoper
Fifty different operas a season and five hundred standing places every night
Concert hallStanding roomVienna · Karlsplatz
Musikverein
The Golden Hall, widely held to be the finest-sounding concert room ever built
MuseumVienna · Innere Stadt
Albertina
A Habsburg palace holding a million prints and drawings, including the hare
MuseumVienna · MuseumsQuartier
Leopold Museum
One ophthalmologist's obsession with Schiele, now the largest collection of him anywhere
TheatreStanding roomVienna · Ringstrasse
Burgtheater
The German-speaking world's most prestigious stage, with Klimt ceilings on the staircases
GalleryVienna · Karlsplatz
Secession
A white cube with a golden dome, built in 1898 by artists who walked out of the academy
MuseumIconBarcelona · Montjuïc
Fundació Joan Miró
A white museum on a hill, designed by the artist's friend to hold his own gift to the city
MuseumFree hoursBarcelona · Montjuïc
MNAC
Romanesque church frescoes lifted whole from the Pyrenees into a palace above the city
MuseumBarcelona · Raval
MACBA
Richard Meier's white gallery, with the most famous skate plaza in the world outside it
Opera houseBarcelona · La Rambla
Gran Teatre del Liceu
Burnt down twice, rebuilt twice, and still the grandest room on the Rambla
Concert hallIconBarcelona · Sant Pere
Palau de la Música Catalana
A modernisme concert hall with a stained-glass skylight that hangs into the room like a drop of sun
Live roomLateBarcelona · Poblenou
Razzmatazz
Five rooms in an old factory, five different musics, one ticket
LandmarkBook aheadBarcelona · Eixample
Basílica de la Sagrada Família
A basilica under construction since 1882, finally nearing its tallest tower
LandmarkIconVenice · Castello
Biennale Giardini and Arsenale
National pavilions in a park and a rope factory the length of a runway, every year since 1895
MuseumVenice · Dorsoduro
Punta della Dogana
The old customs house at the tip of the island, stripped back by Tadao Ando
MuseumVenice · Dorsoduro
Peggy Guggenheim Collection
An unfinished palace on the Grand Canal, holding the collection she assembled in one extraordinary decade
MuseumVenice · Dorsoduro
Gallerie dell'Accademia
Venetian painting from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century, in the school that trained it
Opera houseIconVenice · San Marco
Teatro La Fenice
The phoenix: burnt to the ground in 1774, 1836 and 1996, rebuilt exactly each time
GalleryVenice · San Marco
Palazzo Grassi
The last palace built on the Grand Canal before the republic fell, now a contemporary gallery
LandmarkVenice · Castello
Fondazione Querini Stampalia
A patrician house museum with a ground floor rebuilt by Carlo Scarpa to let the water in
Opera houseBook aheadMilan · Centro
Teatro alla Scala
The most demanding audience in opera sits in the cheapest seats, right at the top
LandmarkBook aheadMilan · Santa Maria delle Grazie
The Last Supper
Fifteen minutes, twenty-five people, one wall that has been failing since the day it dried
MuseumMilan · Brera
Pinacoteca di Brera
Napoleon's art seizures, hung above a working art academy
MuseumMilan · Largo Isarco
Fondazione Prada
A 1910 gin distillery turned into a campus, with one tower covered in gold leaf
MuseumMilan · Piazza del Duomo
Museo del Novecento
Italian twentieth-century art in a fascist-era palace, with a window onto the cathedral
Live roomMilan · Isola
Blue Note Milano
The European outpost of the New York club, two sets a night, six nights a week
TheatreMilan · Brera
Piccolo Teatro
Europe's first publicly funded repertory theatre, founded in a bombed city in 1947
MuseumFree hoursLisbon · Avenidas Novas
Museu Calouste Gulbenkian
One oil magnate's collection, from Egyptian bronzes to Lalique, in its own garden
LandmarkFree roofLisbon · Belém
MAAT
A low white wave on the riverbank that you can walk over, next to a preserved power station
MuseumLisbon · Belém
Centro Cultural de Belém
A pink limestone fortress of a cultural centre, holding the twentieth century
Opera houseLisbon · Chiado
Teatro Nacional de São Carlos
A rococo opera house built in six months in 1793 after the earthquake
Live roomLisbon · Alfama
Clube de Fado
A small vaulted room in Alfama where the lights drop and the service stops for every song
LandmarkFreeLisbon · Alcântara
LX Factory
A nineteenth-century textile complex under the bridge, now studios, galleries and a bookshop in a printworks
GalleryFree hoursLisbon · Campo Pequeno
Culturgest
A bank's cultural foundation, programming the contemporary work the museums avoid
MuseumIconNew York · Upper East Side
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Five thousand years on Fifth Avenue, and a roof garden above the park
MuseumFree hoursNew York · Midtown
MoMA
The museum that wrote the history of modern art, and hung it in the order it wrote
Opera houseBook aheadNew York · Lincoln Center
Metropolitan Opera
The largest repertory opera house in the world, with Chagall murals behind a glass front
Concert hallIconNew York · Midtown
Carnegie Hall
Built by a steel fortune in 1891, saved from demolition by a violinist in 1960
Live roomIconNew York · Greenwich Village
Village Vanguard
A wedge-shaped basement that has recorded more famous live albums than any room on earth
GalleryFreeNew York · Chelsea
Chelsea gallery district
Around two hundred galleries in old warehouse floors, all free, all changing every six weeks
LandmarkNew York · Hudson Yards
The Shed
A building with a telescopic shell that rolls out on rails to double its own size
TheatreBook aheadNew York · Midtown
The Broadway theatre district
Forty-one theatres inside one square mile, selling more than ten million tickets a year
MuseumFreeLos Angeles · Brentwood
The Getty Center
A travertine acropolis above the freeway, free to enter, reached by its own tram
Concert hallIconLos Angeles · Downtown
Walt Disney Concert Hall
Frank Gehry's stainless steel sails, with acoustics that justify every photograph
MuseumFreeLos Angeles · Downtown
The Broad
A honeycomb veil over a concrete vault, holding two thousand works, free to enter
ArenaOutdoorLos Angeles · Hollywood Hills
Hollywood Bowl
Seventeen thousand people, a shell in a canyon and a tradition of bringing your own wine
MuseumLos Angeles · Miracle Mile
LACMA
The largest museum in the western United States, with a field of street lamps out front
LandmarkLos Angeles · Miracle Mile
Academy Museum of Motion Pictures
The film industry finally built itself a museum, with a concrete sphere attached
Live roomLos Angeles · West Hollywood
The Troubadour
A five-hundred-capacity room on Santa Monica Boulevard where a great deal of American music started
MuseumIconMexico City · Chapultepec
Museo Nacional de Antropología
A concrete umbrella over a courtyard, and the greatest pre-Columbian collection in existence
Opera houseIconMexico City · Centro Histórico
Palacio de Bellas Artes
Carrara marble outside, Art Deco inside, and a glass curtain made by Tiffany
MuseumBook aheadMexico City · Coyoacán
Museo Frida Kahlo
The blue house where she was born, lived, painted and died
GalleryMexico City · Polanco
Museo Jumex
A sawtooth roof on travertine stilts, holding the largest private contemporary collection in Latin America
LandmarkFreeMexico City · Centro Histórico
Palacio Nacional murals
Diego Rivera painted the history of Mexico on a government staircase, and it is still a government building
MuseumFree daysMexico City · Chapultepec
Museo Tamayo
A painter's own museum, folded into the park like a set of concrete terraces
Live roomMexico City · Guerrero
Salón Los Ángeles
A danzón and mambo hall open since 1937, where the dancing is the point
MuseumTokyo · Ueno
Tokyo National Museum
Japan's oldest and largest museum, holding the national treasures in six buildings
MuseumLateTokyo · Roppongi
Mori Art Museum
Contemporary art on the fifty-third floor, open until ten at night
TheatreIconTokyo · Ginza
Kabuki-za
Four hundred years of stagecraft, and a ticket for one act sold at the door
LandmarkBook aheadTokyo · Azabudai and Toyosu
teamLab
Digital installations with no fixed floor plan, which change because you are standing in them
Live roomTokyo · Aoyama
Blue Note Tokyo
Two sets a night in a basement in Aoyama, with the best sightlines of any jazz club in this guide
Concert hallTokyo · Akasaka
Suntory Hall
Karajan called it a jewel box, and the vineyard layout has set the Japanese standard since 1986
Live roomTokyo · Ebisu
Liquidroom
A nine-hundred-capacity room in Ebisu with a booking policy that ignores genre
MuseumFreeSeoul · Yongsan
National Museum of Korea
Free, enormous, and holding the gold crowns of the Silla kingdom
MuseumFreeSeoul · Hannam
Leeum Museum of Art
Three buildings by three architects, holding traditional and contemporary Korean art side by side
MuseumFree hoursSeoul · Samcheong
MMCA Seoul
The national contemporary museum, built low inside a palace compound
Concert hallSeoul · Seocho
Seoul Arts Center
A concert hall shaped like a traditional hat, plus an opera house and a calligraphy museum
LandmarkFree optionSeoul · Jongno
Gyeongbokgung Palace
The main Joseon palace, burnt, rebuilt, demolished by occupiers and rebuilt again
Live roomLateSeoul · Mapo
Hongdae live houses
A student district with dozens of basement rooms, four bands a night, a few euros a ticket
GallerySeoul · Namsan
Piknic
A 1970s office building on the hill, turned into an exhibition house with a roof terrace